PRUDHOE schools and community groups will find it easier to keep the town's streets clean with the help of a new litter picking hub.

Adderlane Academy is storing litter pickers, high visibility jackets and gloves available for all to use in a bid to fight Prudhoe's litter problems.

Coun. Gordon Stewart, county councillor for Prudhoe South, organised for the items to be based at the school where they would be available for other schools and groups to use if they wanted to organise their own litter picks.

The items were sourced from Northumberland County Council's local services.

Coun. Stewart said: "Residents tell us that litter is a major issue and we are trying to tackle it in a variety of ways working across the whole community.

"We always try to encourage good citizenship in the schools and do coordinated litter picks. This will mean they can do litter picks at any time of year, whereas it's traditionally just been spring."

Emma Potts, headteacher at Adderlane Academy, said: "It's great because we get to access the equipment whenever we need it, but if Prudhoe Castle school, Mickley or any of the other schools need to use it it's right here for them too.

"We have a huge school field and when we're doing litter picks we don't really need to go that far away. Last time we just went around the boundaries of the school and we picked up seven bags of litter.

"We made it into a bit of a competition to see who could pick up the most bags so it was fun too."